Data.gov launched in May this year to make huge data sets of information from federal agencies available in machine-readable formats. While incredibly valuable, these data sets are not particularly useful in their current format to anyone but researchers, statisticians, sociologists, developers, or others used to parsing databases searching for trends.
The New York Times has announced that its increasingly popular Congress API has been upgraded to include additional features and data (more at our Congress API Profile). The latest version of the Congress API includes two new features that give developers access to more information: Retrieval of bills cosponsored by an individual member and all of the cosponsors for a particular bill Compare the voting records of two members of the House or Senate to see how often they agree and disagree
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a technology that allows organizations to deliver news to a desktop computer or other Internet device. By subscribing to RSS feeds, users can easily stay up-to-date with areas of the Library's site that are of interest. The Law Library of Congress now offers RSS feeds for use in an RSS reader or RSS-enabled Web browser. Library feeds consist of headline, brief summary, and a link that leads back to the Library's Web site for more information. Available feeds cover: THOMAS: Daily Digest, Law Library News and Events, Law Library Webcasts, Current Legal Topics, and the Global Legal Monitor.
Vivek Kundra, the Federal Chief Information Officer, has started a blog to accompany the Federal IT Dashboard that was launched just two weeks ago. The blog is designed to start a conversation on the public’s views of the site and share information that is not included on the actual IT Dashboard site.
Vivek Kundra believes America has fallen behind in technological innovation, but that there is hope. At the Open Government and Innovations Conference in Washington D.C. Kundra cited an Information Technology and Innovation Foundation report that listed the United States last out of 36 nations for adapting new technology, according to an InformationWeek report. The study included areas such as immigration policy, number of students graduating from college and the use of broadband in households and businesses.
Federal agencies need to invest in Web development more strategically, creating online services that help meet missions and better serve citizens, according to a report released on by a management consulting firm.\n\nDespite spending enormous sums on automating government practices, progress on electronic government appears to have plateaued, according to the report "E-government 2.0," published by McKinsey